Sounds like Thuringia

The Kunstfest Weimar arts festival is one of the town’s cultural highlights during the summer months. Internationally acclaimed artists join Weimar’s young, creative scene to transform its streets into a vibrant and inspiring stage. In this interview, the festival’s artistic director, Rolf C. Hemke, provides a fascinating look behind the scenes and also reveals which famous person from the past he would like to have coffee with.

With over 50 concerts at Eastertime, a whole region raises a sound. For the guests of the Thuringia Bach Festival it is exhilarating to listen to Bach's music in authentic places. We have met the festival director for an interview.

There’s much more to Thuringia than just classical music, with plenty on fresh sounds for young audiences on offer at venues throughout the region. The success of Erfurt-born rapper and songwriter Clueso is emblematic of a vibrant and richly varied scene here.

As you’re walking along, it takes a while to realise that you can’t hear much for a change. Except for the buzzing of bees, the wind in the canopy and your own footsteps. It’s a quiet, but by no means uneventful tour from Oberhof to Allzunah.

The enchanting moment lasts just under seven seconds. A bell rings - and the curtains move with a gentle rattle as if moved by magic. The cliffs rise up, and the forest approaches. Afterwards the opera begins without interruption. Welcome to the small Baroque world of the Ekhof Theatre in Gotha, a cradle of modernday theatre culture!

The Weimar master classes are a wonderful opportunity for young musicians – and an absolute pleasure for the audience.

A day’s cycling through idyllic nature, followed by an evening of music or theatre. That’s the winning combination on the Towns of Thuringia Cycle Route. The 230-kilometre route offers cycling enthusiasts the best of both worlds ‒ without any need for detours. You will encounter one beautiful town after another, with each of the seven legs of the journey showcasing the musical and cultural highlights of Thuringia.

The Stelzen Festival (stilt festival), held in the far south-east of Thuringia, may well be the quirkiest music festival in Germany. Every year, the latest version of the ‘agricultural machinery symphony’ kicks off a whole weekend of music interspersed with a generous helping of humour.

The life of a Weimann trumpet begins in a small room with a glass door to the courtyard: Alexander Weimann heats a piece of lead with a gas flame and pours the liquid metal into a primed, straight bell. The sheet must then cool down, to be able to bend it by hand over a round piece of wood in trumpet shape and hammer it smoothly.

Throughout his life, the most famous scion of the Bach dynasty, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), proved that musicians are a restless sort … Bach was born in Eisenach, while Weimar, Ohrdruf, Arnstadt and Mühlhausen had the good fortune to provide a home to his talent, even if his paymasters of the time did not always appreciate it.

Wagner was no stranger to Thuringia. He visited the Venus Grotto and Wartburg Castle, where he found inspiration for his opera Tannhäuser, stayed in Meiningen with the duke and his family and obtained a fake passport in Jena. His legacy reflects the way he lived his life – bold, unconventional and full of drama …